A very shorthanded Wolves squad led by an absolutely resurgent Derrick Rose took down the Utah Jazz in a resounding victory on Wednesday night. The Wolves were without Jimmy Butler, Jeff Teague and Tyus Jones, but got a career-high 50 points in a dominant fashion from Rose, who led them to victory in an instant classic of a game.
Outside of Rose’s brilliance, the Wolves found a surprising but successful blueprint for success. The Wolves moved the ball sharply and Rose absolutely cut up the Jazz defense, collecting six assists on top of his scoring. Josh Okogie made Donovan Mitchell and Ricky Rubio work for everything, and Karl-Anthony Towns put on another dominant performance on both sides of the ball working as both a scorer and a distributor. The one-two punch of Towns and Rose, complimented by a few timely baskets from Andrew Wiggins and solid production from several players who don’t usually see the court helped the Wolves put together a great performance and collect their most impressive victory of the season.
Even when things got ugly early in the fourth, the Wolves stuck to their guns—Rose and Towns. Coach Tom Thibodeau was forced to get very creative in order to get his starters some rest, but at the end of the night the Wolves walked away with the victory.
Karl-Anthony Towns supported Rose’s performance with a fantastic night of his own. He finished with 28 points, 16 rebounds, four assists, two steals and two blocks. But Wednesday night was all about Rose. He scored in every way imaginable and showed off the insane speed and quickness that made him the NBA MVP in 2011. He might not be able to do it every night, but tonight the Wolves got Rose at his absolute best, and on one memorable Halloween night that was more than enough.
A few things (other than Rose) I noticed:
- Thibodeau used a lineup of C.J. Williams, James Nunnally, Wiggins, Anthony Tolliver and Gorgui Dieng for stretches. The group was successful on offense but pretty rough on defense. Nunnally showed off an unexpected set of dribble moves. It was a deep cut for the roster, but fun to see something from those deep bench players, especially in a win.
- Towns was fired up about this game. He was aggressive and passionate, set great screens and had another phenomenal game defending and passing the ball. His season started off slow but he’s rolling now and probably won’t look back.
- The only downside of an amazing night was the free-throw line, where the Wolves got absolutely killed. They went just 16-for-24 from the stripe—luckily the Jazz shot just 18-of-30.